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2019-07-10

min answer › question first answered

2019-07-15T14:45:26.27Z

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Chris Skidmore

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To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference
to his Department's consultation, Energy performance certificate in buildings: call
for evidence, published in October 2018, what assessment he has made of the implications
for his policies of off-grid properties switching from lower carbon to higher carbon
forms of heating in order to obtain a higher energy performance certificate rating.

<p>The replacement of a heating system must always be carried out in accordance with
Building Regulations. Replacing an existing appliance with a less carbon efficient
one is not compliant with Building Regulations and any suspected breaches of this
should be reported to Building Control in the appropriate Local Authority. Replacing
a heating system with a higher carbon option will not be given as a recommended measure
to improve the building’s rating on an EPC as this would be contrary to Building Regulations.</p><p>
</p><p>The Domestic Buildings Services Compliance Guide (2013) provides further information
on this: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/697525/DBSCG_secure.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/697525/DBSCG_secure.pdf</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>We are considering the responses to our call for evidence on EPCs and will
respond in due course.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference
to page 11 of the report entitled, Net Zero, published by the Committee on Climate
Change in May 2019 on setting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and if he will
make it his policy to set an earlier target date for reaching net zero.

<p>The Committee on Climate Change make clear in their report that they do not currently
consider it credible for the UK to aim to reach net-zero emissions earlier than 2050.</p><p>We
have considered their advice and legislated in line with it. The UK is the first major
economy in the world to set a legally binding target to achieve net zero greenhouse
gas emissions by 2050. This world-leading target will bring to an end our contribution
to climate change.</p><p>Having set this target, we are calling on other countries
to similarly increase their ambition.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment
he has made of the most popular models of (a) electricity and (b) heat microgeneration
in buildings throughout the UK.

<p>The Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) scheme supports solar, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion
and micro-combined heat and power technologies. On the basis of installations on Ofgem’s
central FIT register, solar is the most popular method of electricity generation accounting
for 99% of all installations (over 830,000) supported under the scheme.</p><p> </p><p>The
Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports biomass only boilers and biomass
pellet stoves, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels.
The Domestic RHI has accredited over 69,000 applications for the residential microgeneration
of heat. As of May 2019, air source heat pumps are the most popular method of heat
microgeneration, making up 54% of total accredited applications. More deployment data
can be found <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fcollections%2Frenewable-heat-incentive-statistics&amp;data=02%7C01%7Crhi%40beis.gov.uk%7Cfa7b3cc541414cf9723808d7093bce3f%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C636988024779893273&amp;sdata=UgVLRJiE79jA7yueHkpeOrJ6TuQRfvB%2FFalGNGeltN0%3D&amp;reserved=0"
target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p> </p><p>It should be noted that there are some forms
of microgeneration not covered by the RHI or FITs scheme.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment
he has made of the potential for microgeneration of electricity and heat to contribute
to the goals of (a) decarbonisation and (b) net zero emissions by 2050.

<p>The Government has supported the deployment over 6GW of small scale power generation,
and we expect more to deploy now the Smart Export Guarantee has been announced.</p><p>
</p><p>a) This contributes to the over 33% of power that comes from renewables and
over 50% that comes from low carbon sources. Our low carbon power generation could
need to increase four-fold by 2050.</p><p>b) Decarbonising the power sector is crucial
to achieving a net-zero economy – what’s more, small scale generation, as discussed
in the Smart Systems and Flexibility plan is an important part of a more flexible
and decentralised future system. (<a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/upgrading-our-energy-system-smart-systems-and-flexibility-plan"
target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/upgrading-our-energy-system-smart-systems-and-flexibility-plan</a>).</p><p>
</p><p>The generation of low carbon heat through technologies such as solar hot water,
biomass, biomethane and heat pumps can all play an important role in decarbonising
heat. These are all supported by the Renewable Heat Incentive. Through the Renewable
Heat Incentive, the government is spending £2.8bn between 2018 and 2021 to incentivise
the deployment of low carbon heating. (<a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Frhi-mechanism-for-budget-management-estimated-commitments&amp;data=02%7C01%7Cpaul.chambers%40beis.gov.uk%7C0e662403256947479f4e08d709fc2afc%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C636988850974629957&amp;sdata=4pWh0wADtAJzYuF0%2FwvyOxcSgqCglTFVK5%2Fpu79HcCo%3D&amp;reserved=0"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rhi-mechanism-for-budget-management-estimated-commitments</a>)</p><p>The
Government made an assessment on the evidence on options to decarbonise heat in “Clean
Growth – Transforming Heating” published in December 2018 (<a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fheat-decarbonisation-overview-of-current-evidence-base&amp;data=02%7C01%7Cpaul.chambers%40beis.gov.uk%7C0e662403256947479f4e08d709fc2afc%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C636988850974629957&amp;sdata=YgAaTgO2mHh6WjaNC6OmRzpsvw5XXtZNBc9Y73qIXz8%3D&amp;reserved=0"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heat-decarbonisation-overview-of-current-evidence-base</a>).
There is no clear consensus on the best approaches to decarbonising heat at scale.
Given the diversity of heat demand, no one solution can provide the best option for
everyone – a mix of technologies and customer options will need to be available. We
need to continue exploring and testing different approaches to heat decarbonisation.
The Government has committed to publishing a heat roadmap by summer 2020 which will
set out further details on plans for decarbonising heat.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate
he has made of the financial contribution of the oil and gas sector to the economy
of (a) each region of the UK and (b) the UK; and how many jobs the oil and gas sector
supports in each region of UK.

<p>The Department estimates that the oil and gas sector, defined as the combination
of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes 6 and 19, made a financial contribution
of £23.9bn of Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2018[1]. The latest release
of the UK Business Register and Employment Survey indicates that there were 20,700
direct jobs in the sector, with a further 124,100 roles supported in the immediate
supply chain.[2] While it is not possible to estimate the economic contribution of
the oil and gas sector to each region of the UK with sufficient granularity, the latest
Oil and Gas UK Workforce Report estimates that Scotland, Greater London and the South
East of England account for three-fifths of total employment supported by the offshore
oil and gas industry.[3]</p><p> </p><p>[1] ‘Extraction of crude petroleum and natural
gas’ and ‘Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products’ respectively. Note that
as SIC code 19 includes coke oven products, this measure may lead to a slight overestimate.
For context, the balance of GVA generated is £20.5bn and £3.4bn for SIC codes 6 and
19 respectively: <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/datasets/ukgdpolowlevelaggregates"
target="_blank">GDP output approach – low-level aggregates, ONS - June 2019</a></p><p>[2]<a
href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/industry235digitsicbusinessregisterandemploymentsurveybrestable2"
target="_blank">Industry (2, 3 and 5 - digit SIC) - Business Register and Employment
Survey (BRES), ONS - September 2018</a></p><p>[3] <a href="https://oilandgasuk.cld.bz/Workforce-Report-2018/12/"
target="_blank">Workforce Report, Oil &amp; Gas UK - 2018</a></p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many
new models of boilers introduced since October 2017 have been tested and submitted
to the BRE to comply with the new Boiler Plus regulations.

<p>The testing and registration of new models of boiler by the Buildings Research
Establishment (BRE) is not part of compliance with the Boiler Plus regulations.</p><p>In
order to comply with the Boiler Plus regulations, the boiler unit must meet Energy-related
Products (ErP) standards with a minimum ErP efficiency of 92%. Compliance is carried
out by Notified Bodies, as defined by EU Directive 92/42/EEC: Hot Water Boilers. A
list of Notified Bodies can be found at the following URL: <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Fgrowth%2Ftools-databases%2Fnando%2Findex.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Ddirective.print%26refe_cd%3D92%252F42%252FEEC&amp;data=02%7C01%7CRosalyn.Tandy%40beis.gov.uk%7C6619f9a1216a41569f5d08d6e8c8cd56%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C636952346463943182&amp;sdata=gssTJ8R70WjIZLq8bys1I8226ZrXkxW4OvQngs%2BMl1Y%3D&amp;reserved=0"
target="_blank">http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=directive.print&amp;refe_cd=92%2F42%2FEEC</a></p><p>The
BRE maintains the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) for the energy performance of
homes. For the purposes of SAP, boiler efficiency values are derived using a calculation
known as Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK (SEDBUK). This is the value
that is recorded by BRE in the Product Characteristics Database.</p>

<p>Our ambition is to increase total R&amp;D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and
3% in the long term. Successive UK Governments have supported the principle that funding
for basic research should be awarded through competitive processes on the basis of
excellence and likely impact - as assessed through peer review.</p><p>UK Research
and Innovation, a partner organisation of BEIS, primarily engages with industry through
Innovate UK. The table below shows the amount committed by Innovate UK to projects
involving optoelectronics in each of the last 5 years. These figures focus on funds
to industry and, as such, exclude funding towards research-focused partners such as
academics or charities.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Commitment Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Grant
Offered (Commitment)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>£3,530,324</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>£1,944,112</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>£3,676,222</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>£5,225,330</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>£822,952</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em>Note:
as this is committed funding the 2018/19 figures do not include where an offer letter
has been sent but no agreement has yet been reached. As such this will not reflect
the full amount of funding committed in that year.</em></p><p> </p><p>Funding for
research into optoelectronics is also provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council.</p>

<p>Official statistics are not published to a sufficient level of detail to identify
the size of the optoelectronics sector in the UK.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does
however work closely with both the Photonics Leadership Council and the Elect-Tech
Council. The Council’s “UK Photonics: The Hidden Economic Engine” identifies the UK’s
significant strengths in Photonics, including optoelectronics.</p><p> </p>